Champagne rugby from Leinster and Munster, 2l value cider rugby from Ulster

Leinster played Treviso Stadio di Monigo   in a entertaining match. OK, I would say that because Leinster won and won well, and did it with a good portion of the front line players absent. And a lot of fringe players put their hands up and staked their claim for a first team spot. Fionn Carr goes from strength to strength, Jamie Hagan played well as did Rhys Ruddock , and Johnny hard to say second name at 8 had a stormer. And in the back line, O’Malley, McFadden and Madigan all looked the business. Treviso played well as well, handling was good, and with a bit of luck they could have won this match. They had good home support, and their fans had something to shout about.

Now if the Leinster match was champagne rugby, drunk from crystal wine glasses, then the Blues/Treviso and Glasgow/Ulster matches were 2 litre bottles of Tesco value cider, drunk straight from the bottle on a canal bench with only the swans for company. Ugly, painful rugby, abysmal skill levels, that had you wondering why even the handful of spectators had bothered to make the effort.  The Blues at least eventually managed the four point bonus try, but Ulster – Jesus wept. They’ve got Darcy, Cave, Spence and Trimble in the backline and they should have been making merry with the ball. Instead of standing around like interested bystanders while Humphries kicked. At a minimum, they should have been going for a bonus point out of the match, but in fairness, they way they played they didn’t deserve anything. Connacht also lost out to Connacht. Wed I watched AC Milan/Barcelona, Thursday the Blues, Fri Ulster – I’m going to go over to the dark side and start watching soccer just now.

I also watched bit and pieces of the Munster match and it’s obvious there is a gulf in class between high flying Leinster and Munster, and the ghetto of Ulster and Connacht. Munster’s young guns showed us what they had, with Barnes, Zebo , Archer , Keatley, Holland and O’Dea all showing they are ready to step up. They could work on their defence a little, as the Scots crossed for a few easy enough trys.
London Irish put in a good win against Wasps, which I didn’t see, and the last match I saw the Ba Ba’s get thrashed by the Aussies. Poor Ba Ba’s rather than excellent Aussies, but they could only play what was in front of them. O’Connor did well at fly half, and Victor Matfield, as always, shone in his final outing, a giant amongst giants.

Benetton Treviso 20 - 30 Leinster 
Connacht 6 - 17 Ospreys 
Munster 34 - 17 Edinburgh
Scarlets 22 - 12 Newport-Gwent D'gons 
Glasgow 17 - 9 Ulster
Cardiff Blues 38 - 0 Aironi Rugby
London Irish 21 - 17 Wasps
Barbarians 11 - 60 Australia